Safety is above all

The head of the German Ministry of Internal Affairs spoke about the tightening of migration policy

Moatorial to deportation

In 2012, Germany introduced a moratorium on the deportation of Syrian refugees, referring to the dangerous situation inside Syria - it was about threats to torture and violence. Every year the moratorium extended. However, at the end of 2017, at the next meeting of the ministers of the internal affairs of the land in Leipzig, proposals were made this time to extend the moratorium not for a year, as usual, but for only six months. Voices were divided according to the party principle: “For” members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the legal party, Angel Merkel, acted. “Against” are members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which, together with the CDU and the CSS (Christian-social union), forms the ruling coalition.

The main ideologist of this proposal is the Minister of Internal Affairs of Bavaria Joakim Herrmann. This is not surprising: according to the internal system of refugee distribution, Bavaria accepts more than the rest - about 15% of all requested asylum in Germany. The Saxon Minister Marcus Ulbig, who then, a year ago, emphasized: we are talking about the possibility of sending precisely those refugees who "are criminals and pose a serious threat to society."

Social Democrats, however, were blocked by their proposal.

In the next two weeks, the Ministers of the Interior will gather and discuss this issue again. The discussion flared up again after the October events in the small city of Freiburg, where the 18-year-old German was subjected to group rape. The police accuse the eight people: one is a German citizen, seven - Syrian refugees.

Syria remains unsafe

“If the situation in Syria will improve, at least in certain regions of the country, the possibility of deporting a limited circle of people should not be excluded,” said the official representative of the CDU Matias Middelberg, commenting on the incident in Freiburg.

According to German law, a person who has received refugee status can be deported from Germany only if he poses a serious threat to society: for example, he will commit a crime that is punishable at least two -year imprisonment. In this case, the refugee loses permission to accommodate and must leave the country.

Since 2012, this rule has not been applied to Syrian refugees due to a moratorium.

To cancel it means to decide that the situation in Syria no longer poses a threat or, at least, has seriously improved.

The fact that this is so is the ultra -right “alternative for Germany” - but it would be strange if they thought otherwise. But the fact that the right -centric party in the authorities, including the lips of its official representative, showed about this - shows that the liberal migration policy of Angels Merkel undergoes changes.

However, no matter how some politicians wanted to send some of the refugees back to Syria, it is unlikely that the situation can be considered safe there. Last week, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued its report on Syria, calling the state of affairs “complex and unstable”: this definition applies to territories controlled by both Bashar Assad and rebels.

The UN Directorate for Refugees also says that all regions of the country are somehow life -threatening for life and urge European countries not to send refugees back.

What do the Germans themselves think?

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Germany, it seems, are increasingly accustomed to life in a multicultural environment, however, the degree of tolerance to migrants varies greatly by the regions - these are the data of the study “Barometer of Integration - 2018”, the largest study on this topic, published in the fall.

According to the study, 60% of the Germans believe that Germany should continue to receive refugees from the Middle East, even if other countries of the European Union abandon this. 66% of the inhabitants of West Germany are satisfied with the current migration policy, in Eastern Germany fewer Germany - only 55%. Paradoxically, most often, residents of the lands where there are fewer refugees express dissatisfaction. In addition, there are more dissatisfied among men.

The authors of the study indicate that personal experience of interaction with refugees most often helps to overcome prejudices. “The daily situation is much better than it looks in the media,” they say.